A typical consumer-oriented television viewing and recording system may include several modular units addition to a television receiver or monitor. A video recorder (VCR) is commonly used for the recording of broadcast programming and the playback of pre-recorded cassettes. When the broadcasts are received over a cable system, a separate cable tuner/descrambler or "cable box" is commonly employed to decipher premium or "pay" channels. Other associated units may further be included, such as a receiver to tune and descramble programs broadcast via satellite.
These units typically incorporate an infrared receiver which allows the operator, through use of a hand-held transmitter, to turn the unit on and off, control the channel setting of the units' tuner, etc. My U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,046 discloses a VCR with a built-in transmitter for sending remote control codes to an associated unit such as a cable box. This allows the future, unattended recording system of the VCR to energize the cable box and properly set its tuner at the time of a programmed recording. It also allows the control of both units from a single remote transmitter since the VCR can relay control commands to the cable box. The same type of control can be exercised over a remotely controllable T.V. receiver. Alternatively, either the cable box or the T.V. receiver could incorporate the transmitter and the VCR could act as a "slave."
At the present time there is no industry standard for remote control codes so it is necessary for the operator of a multi-unit system of a master and one or more slave units to perform an initializing routine of the same type required with so-called "universal" remote control transmitters. This routine allows the transmitter to determine the control codes for the slave units and store the codes in a memory for future use. These initialization routines are difficult for the average consumer to perform unless they carefully follow the instructions which accompany the unit.
In view of these problems, there is a need for a T.V.-related piece of equipment which can serve as a central receiver of operator commands, and control associated units accordingly. To ease installation, such a device should be able to "learn" the control codes of an associated unit to facilitate VCR and T.V. set control in accordance with operator recording/viewing requests.